Help -- tight flight connection in Auckland
Aug 3rd, 2014, 07:46 PM
#1
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Help -- tight flight connection in Auckland
We are flying into Auckland and our connection to Dunedin allowed three hours, but the airline changed it! Now it is just 1 hour 20 minutes. Seasoned NZ traveler, can you please help us figure out whether we have a good chance of making the Dunedin flight? I don't know if customs will take a lot of time! We won't check luggage and we can run fast!!
Aug 3rd, 2014, 08:09 PM
#2
Is your domestic flight on the same ticket as your international flight? If so, I see no problem, as worst case, they'd put you on the next available flight.
Clearing Quarantine in Auckland can be time consuming, but you can help speed things up by making sure you have nothing that needs to be declared. All food, camping gear and hiking boots, among other things, need to be declared. I've found that wearing my hiking boots makes inspection easy and fast.
Once you've cleared quarantine, you can skip the taking of bags to the transfer desk (since you won't have any checked), then walk over to the domestic terminal (there might be a shuttle, but I always walk as fresh air is a godsend after a long flight). The walk takes about 10 minutes.
Once in the domestic airport it's fast and easy - no restrictions on taking liquids like most everywhere else.
I wouldn't worry about it. I don't know where you're flying in from or on what airline, but for what it's worth, every single Air NZ flight I've been on from the US to Auckland has arrived well ahead of schedule.
Clearing Quarantine in Auckland can be time consuming, but you can help speed things up by making sure you have nothing that needs to be declared. All food, camping gear and hiking boots, among other things, need to be declared. I've found that wearing my hiking boots makes inspection easy and fast.
Once you've cleared quarantine, you can skip the taking of bags to the transfer desk (since you won't have any checked), then walk over to the domestic terminal (there might be a shuttle, but I always walk as fresh air is a godsend after a long flight). The walk takes about 10 minutes.
Once in the domestic airport it's fast and easy - no restrictions on taking liquids like most everywhere else.
I wouldn't worry about it. I don't know where you're flying in from or on what airline, but for what it's worth, every single Air NZ flight I've been on from the US to Auckland has arrived well ahead of schedule.
Aug 5th, 2014, 02:19 AM
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If you aren't taking check in bags and you have an Australian or NZ electronic passport then you can get through in about 15-20mins barring no issues at immigration - I usually have clean golf shoes to declare and because I haven't had to wait for any bags I usually get through straight away. If you don't have an electronic passport then it will depend how long the immigration queue is... There may be a way you can get through this quicker if you ask ? (International check in often have express passes but I'm not sure about entry into the country). Domestic should be pretty straight forward and if you can check in prior then they may even send your boarding pass to your phone (not entirely sure if air NZ do this yet but nearly everything else in Auckland is electronic especially if you have e passport).
Aug 5th, 2014, 07:56 PM
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Thank you! I guess we will go for it and hope for the best. We don't have e-passports, but I will see if we can get them. Arriving from Fiji on Fiji Air, originating from the US; continuing on JetStar to Dunedin.
